Process diary

Hannah Clements

I wanted to explore the trajectory of growth and regeneration, viewing it as a spiral that includes reflection and advancement, rather than as a circle that returns always to the same place. My work aims to explore the dualities between permanence and ephemerality, the uniform and the diverse, decomposition and creation, past and present, opacity and translucency, contained and unrestricted, material and conceptual, as well as ideas to do with the potential of an object for transformation. I chose my materials to reflect this aim, returning books to their original organic state, but with development, transformation and re-evaluated function.

Collection connections

At the core of Hossein Valamanesh’s art lies the relationship between humans and the natural world and a sense of place informed by cultural history and personal memory. In your opinion is this reflected in Open Book? Discuss how material and conceptual practice come together in this work.

Compare Open Book with Hannah Clements’s Flourish. Discuss the similarities and differences. How does Clements’s use of the book as a material object differ from Valamanesh’s?